41 Family P 12
SHRIEK.
The sound snapped Lia to her senses and her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she saw the door to the office open.
Then a second later, a surprised face appeared as he looked at Lia, then it contorted into shock, disbelief until finally vigilance when his gaze fell onto the mortal corpses who still held onto First P's dead body.
Lia's and Tom's eyes met for a second before he sprinted away.
"Damn!" Lia cursed and wanted to run after him but first infused her soul into First P and ordered her corpses to follow her.
She rushed down the stairs, the faint sound of Tom's footsteps echoing from the walls. She never would have imagined him being here at this hour. He saw her power and seemed to understand. She couldn't let him go now. She couldn't leave him alive.
The footsteps stopped at the second floor and several items came flying towards her. Lia dodged and had her corpses shield her. She blindly flew down the stairs and entered the second floor, however, Tom was nowhere to be seen instead a bunch of ghosts greeted her.
"Come here!" she called out to the corpses to kill the ghosts.
Tom setting free the ghosts was another turn of events she didn't calculate. While she was being protected by the corpses, she checked the whole floor but Tom was nowhere to be seen. He must have escaped.
Lia's mind was furiously working, what was Tom doing there? The person from the evening she saw rushing up the stairs was him? Then what was he doing until so late in the night? She had no answers but she had to quickly inform Noel.
She went to the 3rd floor. It was dimly lit and a pungent smell attacked her nose.
Lia saw Noel with his back turned to her, standing in front of the laboratory.
"Noel?" Lia called out to him. Noel faced her and nodded. There was blood on his clothes.
"They're dead."
"Second and Third ?"
"Yea, Third P and Second P fought each other and ended up stabbing the other," Noel held up two bloody knives that emitted a green light.
"I stored them in one of the rooms."
Lia didn't say anything but chose to believe Noel. There was no time to worry about his story's credibility. As long as Second P and Third P were out of the picture, it meant a step closer to their goal.
"First P's dead too, however, Tom saw me. I tried to catch him but he disappeared and even let the ghosts on the second floor free."
Before Lia ordered her corpses to remain on the second floor so Noel wouldn't see them.
"So, we need to catch him and get rid of the ghosts? Can't you-"
"Shut up."
Lia didn't want to hear his snarky remarks.
"Hey, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Lia followed Noel who went to the door.
"Downstairs. Voices."
Lia kept her mouth closed and focused her attention on any noises but she couldn't hear anything.
Once again she wondered just how much Noel was hiding. His hearing was far superior than even when she had powers.
Noel walked down to the ground floor, Lia behind him. Just when they stepped off the last stair, they saw Sera standing there with a pale face.
"You guys? Here's Elder P?"
"Elder P?" Lia approached Sera but then saw that behind her the others were also present.
"What's wrong?" Noel was also stunned.
"Didn't you see it?" Nessa ran to Lia and pulled her next to her and Nita, "The ghosts! They're running around! We were woken up by ghosts in our rooms!"
"Bloody scary I tell you. Luckily we managed to escape them and get here," Phil who was on the same floor as Sera scratched his head.
"Ghosts run around?" Noel asked and shot Lia a look. Lia nodded.
"Yes and-" Nessa flinched at a squeaking sound and rustle as if something heavy was being pulled down.
"What's going on?" Barn who worked with Noel moved towards the entrance of the ground floor. Everyone followed and what they saw, made few of them run to the door and pull on it but it was futile.
Metal shutters rolled down and confined them inside the buildings. They were everywhere the light from outside could reach.
The entrance door, the windows all were barricaded by the shutters. They tried to open the window but the shutters wouldn't budge.
"We're stuck," Noel concluded.
"The other floors?" Nita looked calm but her hands trembled.
"We shouldn't stray away from each other," Claire motioned them all into a room.
"Also, we will run into ghosts. They are everywhere."
It was silent. This was a bad situation. They were immortals but ghosts could kill them. They all thought they'd be safe with the ghosts in the cases. No one could release the ghosts apart from the exorcists but now their worst nightmare came true.
"Who is it?" Nessa hugged her knees. They sat in chairs in the meeting room and no one knew what to say.
"Tom," Lia spoke up and all eyes fell on her, "I saw him in the upper floors and then he set the ghosts on our floor free to chase after me."
"Tom? Speaking of it, he isn't here," Mat who was responsible for the ground floor with Claire wore his stern look.
"Why? We need Elder P! Elder P can save us!" Sera bit on her thumb.
"How? We can't even get up!" Phil was annoyed and anxious. This was not what they signed up for.
Lia was also concerned. This was her mistake. She made the wrong decision and was careless enough to let Tom see her and escape and now they were in this situation.
Only she knew the true story. She avoided eye contact with Noel because she felt ashamed for not listening to him. If only she had retreated, things wouldn't have escalated this far.
The facility was shut down and they were unable to escape. On top of that ghosts roamed around.
There were a few possibilities. First, First, Second and Third P were dead which only left Fourth and Elder P alive. Four P could be ruled out as the culprit. So it was either Elder P or Tom, or the worst possibility: both of them.
Second, it wasn't clear if the other floors were barricaded by shutters like on the ground floor.
Third, if it really was Elder P, then he must have a place to stay safe from this chaos. Tom would also not carelessly set ghosts free without any backup plan.
Fourth, there was an abundance of corpses for Lia. She had no problem managing herself. However, she could let anyone see her use them. In the worst case, if Tom and Elder P worked together, then Elder P would already know of her power.
That meant- Lia abruptly stood up, they would get rid of the corpses! She had no time to lose!
"Kim?" Nessa pulled on Lia's clothes.
"I'll go and check the other floors, Tim, you stay here and take care of everyone."
"What can you do?" Phil was exasperated, he didn't want anyone to leave this room.
"Tim and I have combat skills and someone needs to reach the other members, no?" Lia was ready to open the door when she felt someone pull her backwards.
"Let me go with you! You're going to see Elder P without me?" Sera clung onto Lia. Her infatuation with Elder P wasn't normal!
"I will bring him, so don't worry," Lia needed to get her off her but Sera's grip was too strong.
"Please let go," Barn took Sera and peeled her off Lia. Lia was surprised but quickly nodded and headed out.
She had to run to her room to get her weapons. Her corpses were still on standby on the second floor. What was important now was to find Tom and hopefully Elder P. If Lia could kill Elder P, then everything would be easy.
After she collected the weapons from her room, she saw several ghosts lurking around on the ground floor. A few crowded the stairs. Lia bit her lips, ran to the ghosts and jumped to the side when they reached for her. In each hand, a dagger, she slashed through them and made her way up the stairs.
She ordered her corpses to find her and kill all ghosts on their way. Lia lied when she said she had combat abilities. She was agile and had stamina and trained her body when she was still an exorcist and in the abyss, but her physical strength decreased because she had to use her soul instead of her lifeforce.
Now that she has lost her powers, her combat skills also went down but it wasn't bad enough for her not being able to handle ghosts. She felt like if she were to fight Noel, she wouldn't be able to beat him without her corpses.
She left Noel with the others and hoped he could manage on his own.
On the first floor, she checked the windows and sure enough, they were all covered by the metal shutters.
Lia headed to the laboratory before remembering that Fourth P was still alive. She knocked on the office and on the wall she saw First P come out. After a few times, a tired woman came out. Surprised she saw Lia.
Lia wasn't sure if she should kill her but seeing Fourth P like this, she suddenly didn't want to, instead, she grabbed her and pulled her out to the staircase.
She briefly explained what was going on and sent Fourth P to the meeting room where the others were.
If Fourth P survived until she made her way there was none of Lia's concern.
In the laboratory, she infused all the corpses with her soul. She did that on each floor until she headed to the fifth floor. She had a few corpses follow her but the rest remained on their floors killing ghosts.
In case someone saw them, Lia told them to remain dead. She hoped they got what she meant.
On the last floor, just when she saw a silhouette that looked like Elder P, a hand grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth.
She reluctantly had to let Elder P run away while she ordered the corpses to remain at the stairs. The sight of Elder P disappearing into another wall in the open office made her aware of the fact that there were several more illusions.
"Kim," Lia struggled as Tom's familiar voice breathed out, "you came."
